Nevermind The Posers

See ya in the pit.

Cake Fans Create New Video For “The Winter” March 23, 2012

Filed under: Music Videos — NVMP @ 6:59 AM
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Review by Hoverbee

Cake is known for including the average Joe in the creation of their music videos.  The video for “Short Skirt/Long Jacket,” off the album Comfort Eagle and directed by lead singer John McCrea, is composed of footage presenting everyday people listening to the song and giving their reactions.  Similar to that is the official video for “No Phone” off the album Pressure Chief which features members of the public wearing headphones dancing to the song. With the video for “The Winter” off the album Showroom of Compassion, the band has taken the concept a step further.  Director and friend of the band Tracy Rowland presented them with the idea of including the listening audience again, only this time extending the opportunity to their global fan base.  The video combines footage of nearly 200 participants singing along to the song.  The massive undertaking by these fans, ranging in age from 5 to 55 and hailing from 165 different cities in 20 countries on 5 continents, is a wonderful way to express their love of Cake and to support the band.  So, check it out!

 

New Animated Video by Cake For “Long Time” April 15, 2011

Filed under: Music Videos,New Music — NVMP @ 7:57 PM
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Video Review by Hoverbee

Click Here to watch the video for "Long Time" at MTV.com

Cake has released a video for the second single, “Long Time,” off of Showroom of Compassion.  The animated music video was created by French production company Callicore Films, an art studio that focuses on CG Art and the resistance against “the cultural dictatorship of media.”  Founded by distinguished French artist Laurent Mercier and his partners Linda Mercier and Xavier Semen, Callicore has worked with John Lee Hooker Jr., Arrested Development, The Buzzcocks, Marky Ramon and more.  Their collaboration with Cake resulted in the sad story of a vagabond and his monkey who have been imprisoned for going against the grain and not following the same road as others.  The video mimics the lyrics of “Long Time” by cutting together scenes of the imprisoned vagabond and his monkey, flashbacks of happier days when they were free and an image of a ticking clock.  In the end of the video, while being transported to their execution, the vagabond breaks through a panel in the truck finding a way to escape, but is unable to fit through the hole.  He realizes his monkey friend will fit through the hole and sacrifices himself by setting his monkey friend free.  Although a sad story, the video is a fitting visual companion for the song.

 

Showroom of Compassion January 26, 2011

Filed under: CD Reviews — NVMP @ 7:56 PM
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Review by Hoverbee

I confess that I have been a longtime lover of the band Cake.  Even after all of these years, that love has only grown stronger.  Far from having an exact formula, there are a few things that Cake usually does from album-to-album so fans know what to expect and their latest release, Showroom of Compassion, delivers.

The album is classic Cake.  John McCrea is still delivering his lyrics like a beatnik poet and the band is still not afraid to take on many genres of music such as country, ska, funk, rockabilly, pop, and jazz and blend them together to create their signature sound.  The band tends to include one cover or more on each album and one instrumental.  On Showroom of Compassion, the cover is Frank Sinatra’s “What’s Now is Now” on which the band puts its own unique spin and the instrumental is “Teenage Pregnancy” which perhaps needs no lyrics because the title really says it all.  The album also has its share of all the little extra delights in Cake songs that we cherish (heys, oh yeahs, yahs, clapping, whistles, layered background vocals, and vibraslap).

My top picks from Showroom of Compassion are “Long Time,” “Mustache Man (Wasted),”  and the radio single “Sick of You.”

Although this album has a lot of the things that make Cake awesome, it seems to be missing the one thing that started to slip away with songs like “No Phone” off the 2004  release Pressure Chief and that is the outlandish, hilarious lyrical wordplay.  Songs from previous albums such as “Meanwhile, Rick James…,”  “When You Sleep,” “Frank Sinatra,” and “Rock’ N’ Roll Lifestyle” all have the bizarre lyrical concoction that is so appealing to fans.  Cake continues to address subjects and topics far outside the norm opening the album with the song “Federal Funding,” but the song is lacking lyrically in comparison with songs from past albums.  However, there is a glimmer of that lyrical wordplay in the song “Winter.”  Perhaps “missing” is too harsh of a definition.  Let’s just say that it’s less prominently featured.

To Cake I say, “Keep up the good work!  The music is great!  I still love you, but could you please lyrically blow my mind like you did with “Commissioning a Symphony in C?”